Once upon a time . . .
I lived my life, as though any day could of been my last.
At the tender age of 15, that was how I was living.
THUG LIFE wasn’t just a cool slogan for me
It was a religion.

Amen . . . .
A man . . . manifested a plan
To cultivate the minds and land of his people
THE PEOPLE
We shall overcome . . . some day
But for now, we can forget about being treated socially equal
Maybe in 30 yrs or so . . . in a 100 yrs or mo’
What you reap you sow . . . When I think I GROW
When I think I GLOW . . . When one think, it SHOWS
Think about it . . .
Scratch your head and blink about it
Dropped some jewelry, the impact knocked a link up out it

Once upon a time . . .
I was of a different mind
On the block all the time – committing different crimes
I grew up poor . . . refrigerator on E, my bed was the floor
Ventured down a different path
Opened a different door
Emotions became a wrath
The block became my whore
Money became my b****
My b**** became my god
And GOD became a myth . . .

My salvation, was inside a spliff
The burning bush was burning
My world was turning, upside down
A child hood was lost – a light was found
Society is out of bounds, to the undesirables
Kids wanting to be what they see on cable
Damn near every household possess a Cain and Abel
Damn near every parent in my hood was unstable
A half full 40oz in the fridge, a bag of red hot chips on the table
Crack pipes stashed in the medicine cabinets
It’s easy for the youth to gravitate, to the GHETTO FABULOUS
Gangsters, killers and hustlers
Foreign whips, and customers
Fly girls lust for us
Feeling like you on top of the world
But all along, you’re on top of nothing
At least, you’re on top of something
Even if it’s on top of nothing

Once upon a time . . . I was of a different mind
My 3rd eye was blind to the symbols and signs
Now I can see CLEARLY

I’m a changed man, with this New Life
AIM for success
I finally got it right
All the drugs and stuff
Those are old habits
Negative people, you can have it
Healthy living, that’s all me
I’m shining bright like a diamond
Can’t you see?
I feel like a newborn baby
It feels lovely to breathe New Life
My REENTRY into the outside world won’t be much of a fight
Living Life
I’m just living life
Come join me in this New Life
My changed ways was for the better
AIMING for success
I won’t rest until I reach it
I know my new way of living
Will make my loved ones proud
It’s my new certificate of completion
My New Life
I’ll just sit back
And SMILE.

They don’t want us to recite our poems, don’t want the people to behold any signs or see any symbols and they d-mn sure don’t want us to know that the ancestors are with us. They don’t want us to recite our poems.

They fear the foreign sounds of our secret language: Hope. They thought it long dead. They are afraid of the spread of our fever how it creeps along the sense—our hearing and seeing, our awakening perception, our ability to sniff out what’s false.

The willingness to feel our most painful wound, the taste of blood on our lips. They don’t want us to recite our poems.

They are afraid of the promise of our spring, the way mother earth blushes green for us, hiding her gift in full view of both the strong and weak alike.

She has shown us fine stones in a babbling brook: love, faith, courage, tenacity, and understanding. They fear the inevitable fall of their rampaging giants.

They don’t want us to recite our poems. They want us to die with our songs unsung. They want to bury our burnt-out husks perfectly preserved shells, with sightless eyes of bitter black smoke and a mouthful of tightly clenched pearl-white teeth, trapping inside, for all eternity, the music that they desperately fear.

I’ve been in this world,
for a short time.
Countless tears
wasted on
nothing an’ no ones

Feeling like my
life is over
before it has begun
Yet why is it
that I haven’t given
up the fight
to right my wrongs
and raise my son right

I have travelled the hardest road
been from this penitentiary to
the next
but no one cares
but me
My life means so much more
to me than it use to
I feel like a bird without
a nest
The hopes and dreams that came so
fast can only be a rendition
of my f-ed up past

Listen to the pains of the beating drum
Mental AnguishBa.dum.ba.dum.dum
The sounds of a mind taking a beating
Sent to the ghettos, stripped from their kingdomBum.Dum.Ba-dum.bum
Its hide screams at every beat that comesBa.Dum.Ba.Dum.Dum
Rhythm & Blues; Pain never sounded so good
Embracing our culture, if they only understoodBa.dum.Ba-dum.bum
Heavy bass on the beat soothes my mind on these streets
Nighttime, my baby went to sleep on my heartbeatBA.BUM.BA.BUM.BA.BUM
Voluptuous hips rock to the heavy beat of the soul
Synchronized to the sound of its ownWhum-bum.Whum.bum.bum
A powerful nation, the beat of its throne
An unstoppable machine feared cuz they knowBa.dum.Ba.dum.Bum
That soulful beat passed down for centuries
Voices are heard from lungs never empty – full of life
These drumming pains have historyBa.dum.Ba-dum.Bum
So next time you hear heavy bass or that bellowing drum
Listen to its spirt; that beat where I come fromBa.dum.Ba.dum.Bum

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Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop

Free Minds uses books, creative writing, and peer support to awaken DC youth incarcerated as adults to their own potential. Through creative expression, job readiness training, and violence prevention outreach, these young poets achieve their education and career goals, and become powerful voices for change in the community.

Winner of the 2015 Aspen Ideas Award from the Aspen Institute, the Justice Potter Stewart Award from the Council for Court Excellence, and the Library of Congress Best Practices in Literacy Award.

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